Let's talk about...SARA...

[petep9000]

I like the way it sounded on stage during the 'Tusk' tour, I love the filmed version that VH-1 used to show sometimes (back in the 80's), with the orange chiffon robe and the big hair bun.

[Lala]

Originally Posted by LukeA

I've always loved how the first couple lines in Sara seem to answer Lindsey from the previous song.

"don't know why I have to go, don't know why I can't stay"... "wait a minute baby, stay with me a while"

This is my favourite FM song as well as my favourite song of all time...AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I never noticed this. So cool.

Originally Posted by petep9000

I like the way it sounded on stage during the 'Tusk' tour, I love the filmed version that VH-1 used to show sometimes (back in the 80's), with the orange chiffon robe and the big hair bun.

The guitar solo makes my jaw drop. So simple. So perfect.

So off topic for the Stevie forum, but oh well...

[Zombie]

I love "Sara." I call the version from the HBO special my "audio Prozac," because it instantly makes me happy.

It obviously doesn't sound the same as it does when it's with the Mac, but the sheer joy on everyone's faces in that video as they play the song is just great to me.



Happy!

There are some different comments about the song here, http://inherownwords.com/sara.htm

In one, she says it's pretty much all about Mick, but in the others, she says it's about everyone and everything that was going on at that time.

[daniellaaarisen]

I love love love it when Stevie writes from the "poet in her heart" and not just from a musically-oriented place. There's usually a big difference between a poet and a songwriter and with songs like this, that line disappears.

I think that there are very few Stevie songs that originate from one source. Think "Gold Dust Woman", "Landslide", "Goodbye Baby", "Beautiful Child"... the list goes on. There are few songs that we can easily pinpoint to one general part of Stevie's life ("Silver Springs" comes to mind). I think Sara is a great example of that-- I believe Stevie's music tends to be more of an expression of a specific feeling or worry rather than people and events. Because of that, many different aspects of her life get thrown into one song. It's the same for many writers, I think.

"Sara", we can assume, is a little Don Henley, a little Mick, a little Lindsey, a little abortion, a little "life of a rock n' roll star"... It is an illustration of HER at that time with oh-so vague references to specific events-- references that drive us fans crazy

[Remy]

Originally Posted by David

I like "Sara" a lot because of the same reason I like "The Nightmare": the arcane, random unfurling of imagery has the rhythm & intensity of an ancient saga. It doesn't fix referents in a traditional narrative pattern; just the opposite -- it bats emotions & moods one off the other in a nonstop murmur, like a babbling brook in a cedar forest dappled with sunlight. "Sara" speaks of ages past & obsessive lives that are largely irrecoverable but that nonetheless hold us spellbound.

HA! Beautifully put. You have a way with words.

[jenniferuk]

[QUOTE=FMlex;830020]^

Drowning in the sea of love, where everyone would love to drownQUOTE]

Those words and the bass line pulled me in...have loved this song from the first moment I heard it (a million years ago). My current favourite version is the 7 minute from Tusk sessions.

[jedw]

I thought it was about her and Mick, and Sara recor whom Mick had an affair right after.

Anyway, im not bothered its one of my alltime favourites whatever its about.

[gypsy4life]

....it always makes me choke up a little when she says.."all I ever wanted, was to know that you are dreaming"....

I love Sara...it is classic Stevie, in the writing aspect....

[cristochango]

I think the ends of all of stevie's songs are better than the beginnings. or at least when they're played live.

Rhiannon.
Sara.
Silver Springs.
Gold Dust Woman.
Edge of Seventeen. (from Live in Chicago)

Anyone agree with me?

[SuzeQuze]

Yes it is about her friend Sara. Didn't Stevie lock herself in a room all night, when she heard about Sara and Mick, and write this song? She and Mick were having an affair on the Rumours tour. Mick stopped seeing Stevie for Sara. I think she is speaking to Mick when asking him to stay but then she says it's gone and it doesn't matter why. I think simply because it's gone.

Drowning in the sea of love... I just though jeez that sounds like a great love that literally kills you. I think Stevie romanticized everything and created most of the great part of their love in her head. How can it be a great love when he is married with children and the "love" is a big secret? Stevie's a love addict.

It's about Don too, she's mentioned the "when you build your house part" is about him. She's mentioned the "great dark wing" part is about Mick and his car when he would visit.

I like the rhythm and dreamy quality of this song. This song is my absolute fave.

[David]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Yes it is about her friend Sara. Didn't Stevie lock herself in a room all night, when she heard about Sara and Mick, and write this song? She and Mick were having an affair on the Rumours tour. Mick stopped seeing Stevie for Sara. I think she is speaking to Mick when asking him to stay but then she says it's gone and it doesn't matter why. I think simply because it's gone.

Right after that opening stanza, why does Stevie address "Sara" as the poet in her heart? Is that "Sara" just an alter-ego of the Stevie Nicksmeister herself? I've never heard Stevie call any other contemporary a poet -- except Dylan, I guess. But Stevie has certainly called herself a poet hundreds of times in the press -- even saying lightly to Jim Ladd in 1981, "Nobody likes a poet, Jim."

Drowning in the sea of love... I just though jeez that sounds like a great love that literally kills you. I think Stevie romanticized everything and created most of the great part of their love in her head. How can it be a great love when he is married with children and the "love" is a big secret? Stevie's a love addict.

I think that line refers to the "sea" of fans at the rock concert -- the thousands of indistinct faces that Stevie saw as she looked out across the footlights from onstage. At one time, Stevie didn't have contact lenses & couldn't see very far into the audience, but once she got her contacts, she saw this "sea of love" -- "The people they love her . . ." And she loved drowning in this adulation.

[michelej1]

Also, I don't think the part about going anywhere, ask me and I am there is about Mick. Mainly because he was right there in the band with her. He never asked her to go anywhere.

That part of it sounds like it's directed more towards a man who might have wanted her to give up her career for him. Which is more like what she's said of Joe Walsh who would come into the picture later.

But anyway, the message in that line to me is that "you're the man that I'd give it all up for," which I think is a contrast to Lindsey, because she'd said he was the type who would like his old lady to stay home and do the laundry. So, I almost see it being a message, "Yeah, I wouldn't do it for you, but I'd do it for him," whoever "him" was.

What I like about the current tour is the way they sing that line towards each other. Feels like pushing (a sea of) water under the bridge in a reconciliatory way.

While a couple of lines are probably about Mick, I don't think the whole song is about any one person. When she said it was about all of them, I don't think she was lying . I mean, it's about all of them to the extent that it's about any of them. It's not all meaning. Sometimes it's just emotion.

Michele

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by David

Right after that opening stanza, why does Stevie address "Sara" as the poet in her heart? Is that "Sara" just an alter-ego of the Stevie Nicksmeister herself? I've never heard Stevie call any other contemporary a poet -- except Dylan, I guess. But Stevie has certainly called herself a poet hundreds of times in the press -- even saying lightly to Jim Ladd in 1981, "Nobody likes a poet, Jim."

I actually think she literally means Sara. Her friend inspired her to write this song, hence she's the poet in her heart. The building your house lyric I always thought was about Mick and Sara and Stevie was saying when they got married she would be there. She's mentioned it's about Don. I think it's about all three of them, Mick, Sara, and Don.

Of course the song ultimately is about Stevie herself as all of her songs seem to be.

Originally Posted by David

I think that line refers to the "sea" of fans at the rock concert -- the thousands of indistinct faces that Stevie saw as she looked out across the footlights from onstage. At one time, Stevie didn't have contact lenses & couldn't see very far into the audience, but once she got her contacts, she saw this "sea of love" -- "The people they love her . . ." And she loved drowning in this adulation.

This could be. I've always interpreted the lyric as describing an all encompassing romantic love that completely envelopes you with its warmth and passion.

[equeen102289]

Sara is definitely in my top 5 of favorite FM songs. I love everything about it- the lyrics, and Stevie's vocal, as well as something simple like Mick's drumming.

I actually presented this song earlier in the year in my Art class as one of my favorite lyrical poems.

Here's my favorite live version of Sara:




The way she holds out "Saraaaa" at the end... I love it!

[goldustsongbird]

Originally Posted by equeen102289

Sara is definitely in my top 5 of favorite FM songs. I love everything about it- the lyrics, and Stevie's vocal, as well as something simple like Mick's drumming.

I actually presented this song earlier in the year in my Art class as one of my favorite lyrical poems.

Here's my favorite live version of Sara:




The way she holds out "Saraaaa" at the end... I love it!

Oh, I love that version. I had forgotten about it until you posted. Thanks.